What blew up my gun?

[normyt]

Had a 243 and 6-284 a few years ago blow a case bad, in both cases they had been reloaded for a couple years. The actions didnt seem damaged and have since put afew rounds through them.Both cases where 100% loads so it was impossible to overload and it was the correct powder.
The only thing I could think of was bullet weld, run a few cases back through the seating die and bingo! They all poped a little but a few of them where very tuff.
Since then I make a habit of bumping back any loads that have been loaded over six month. Kind of a PITA but I try not to reload more than I'm going to shoot in one season.
Try bumping a few rounds back a couple thousand and see what you find? Also check a few case lengths, if the case is too long it can lock the bullet up.

Yeah I'll try bumping a few before pulling bullets to check load.
Also just load a boxer or 2 instead of reload 100 at a time

 

[J E Custom]

Went shooting yesterday, shot about 5 shots and on 6th shot this happened.
Reloads from a couple years ago , store in ammo box in a shooting bag.
Rifle is a 22-250 Savage Model 10
Bullets are 55Gn Hornady V-Max
35GN of Varget Powder
Been doing this recipe for approx. 4 years, have never had problem.
No signs of over pressure until this incident, happily no injuries/casualties (except gun,LOL)
Any Ideas out there

View attachment 148591 View attachment 148592

Is that molten brass on the breach face ? If so, it was a very high pressure situation.
When a load or pressure is beyond max, it will normally lock up the action. But if it is a lot more than max pressure it can melt the brass and flow around the bolt lugs ruining it even though it doesn't blow it up.

J E CUSTOM

 

[normyt]

Is that molten brass on the breach face ? If so, it was a very high pressure situation.
When a load or pressure is beyond max, it will normally lock up the action. But if it is a lot more than max pressure it can melt the brass and flow around the bolt lugs ruining it even though it doesn't blow it up.

J E CUSTOM

There is no picture of breach face. the one picture with brass is the chamber of barrel.

 

[John Klingenberg]

There is no picture of breach face. the one picture with brass is the chamber of barrel.

The entry to the chamber is the breach.

 

[John Klingenberg]

Im with most here. Im not sure if you can cram enough of the right powder in to do that. Could it have been another rifle powder? If all your rounds were acting the same it could have been incrementally pushing the lugs back until the failure. But that theory seems like the bolt wouldve stiffened up before that. Ive had the muzzle bulge that was my fault but nothing near like that. Sorry that happened to you, glad no one was hurt. Id have a flinch for years if that happened to me. New Years would find me quivering under a table.

 

[normyt]

Im with most here. Im not sure if you can cram enough of the right powder in to do that. Could it have been another rifle powder? If all your rounds were acting the same it could have been incrementally pushing the lugs back until the failure. But that theory seems like the bolt wouldve stiffened up before that. Ive had the muzzle bulge that was my fault but nothing near like that. Sorry that happened to you, glad no one was hurt. Id have a flinch for years if that happened to me. New Years would find me quivering under a table.

When reloading very careful to only have container of powder being used on bench. So I can't see it being another powder. The bolt never got stiff to open after first few shots.
Yeah almost makes a guy rethink about reloading. Will see about flinching when I go shoot my reload for my 280

 

[robert l]

Yeah can see thru bore

bullet weld.

 

[normyt]

bullet weld.

That's what Mach
That's what MachV suggested. suggest I bump seat some of my reloads of the same batch
see if hard to press

 

[simo hayha]

Bullet weld is real.

Bullet weld is capable of catastrophic dissassembly of a rifle.

 

[normyt]

Bullet weld is real.

Bullet weld is capable of catastrophic dissassembly of a rifle.

How / Why does it happen? Just bad storage practices? Too long in storage?

 

[bigngreen]

Bullet weld wont cause that, it'll spike it but especially in a factory neck diameter the case will blow away from the neck and the bullet will leave at a higher start pressure but it won't magically make an action peel like that. Your looking at 200,000 psi land.

 

[bigngreen]

Did you count how many bullet holes were in the target?

 

[MachV]

Bullet weld wont cause that, it'll spike it but especially in a factory neck diameter the case will blow away from the neck and the bullet will leave at a higher start pressure but it won't magically make an action peel like that. Your looking at 200,000 psi land.

Blown a few primers and necks off over the years and have had to rap a couple of bolts open but never had a failure anywhere near that. Ageed it will split the neck off and blow a primer but that looks like a detonation... but why?

 

[normyt]

Did you count how many bullet holes were in the target?

No I didn't. Can't recall exactly how many shots I took (5, 6, 7 ???) was a little stunned after incident.